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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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HOLUNGER 
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MILL RUN F3-1543 



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Copy 1 



SOUTH IN DANGER. 

KEAiy BEFORE YOU VOTE. 



'7 



• THE DEMOCRATIC ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



There never was a period when the South was in 
so much danger as at this moment. To procure 
the Abolition vote for Henry Clay, we will show 
that the Whig party of the North, their leading press- 
es, legislative bodies, and statesmen, have denounced the 
3«uth, they have held up slavery as a crime, they have 
promised a speedy union ta effect its overthrow with 
the Abolitionists, and have joined with them in holding 
up the Soitb to obloquy and reproach. The means 
used by this new coalition are to represent the peo- 
ple of the South to their sister States and to the 
world as disgraced and degraded by the institution of 
slavery, and as unworthy of Christian communion and 
social intercourse. Already this demoniac feling has 
dissolved the Methodist Church, and other American 
chorches are threatened with a similar fate. The ob- 
ject is te taboo Ihe South, to render us infamous, to put 
the mark of Cain upon our forehead, and to deprive us 
of character first, as the means of despoiling us of our 
property afterwards. Men of the South, the effort is 
to disgrace and degrade you and your children for- 
ever. That such a party exists in the North, is con 
ceded. They denounce you in their presses, petitions, 
aa«l speeches, as man-stealers, as robbers, as flesh-job- 
bers, as slave-breeders, as convict criminals, as vile and 
infunaus, as unworthy of Christian or social commu- 
nion, and, finally, as existing only by sufferance as a 
pert of the Union. Now if, as we shall demonstrate, 
the party which thus denounces the South is courted 
by the Whig party of the North, if they are assured, 
as we shall show, by the Whigs of the North, that 
their views are identical with those of tlie Abolitionists, 
that they are only using different means to accomplish 
the same object, and that the abolition of slavery will 
be more certainly effected by the election of Clay than 
that of Birney, surely you cannot continue united as a 
party with the Whigs of the North, who thus join with 
your enenies to disgrace and degrade you. If the 
leaduDg Whig statesmen of the North denounce you 
a« culprits and criminals, and immediately succeeding 
tfaia denunciation, these your avowed enemies are no- 
aiinated and elected as Governors, as members of Con- 
gress, and of the State liCgislature, by the Whig party 
of the North, can you continue united with such a 
p«rty, and if you do, are not your own votes joined 
with those of your enemies in subjecting you to dis- 
grace and degradation. But let us to the proof; And 
we extraot from the National Intelligencer republished 
» Ihe Liberty Legion, the following address on the 
subject of TexaSjby twenty-one members of Congress, 
aM fHends of Mr. Clay, all of whom, since their con- 
demnation of you, have been sustained by the united 
vote of the Whigs of the North. 

"We hesitate not to say, that annexation, effected by 
any act or proceeding of the Federal Government, or 
any of its departments, would be identical with disso- 
lution. It would be a violation of our national com- 
pact, its objects, designs, and the great elementary 
principles which entered into its formation, of a cha- 
racter so deep and fundamental, and would be an at- 
tempt to eternize an institution and a power of nai urc so 
unjust in themselves, so injurious to the interests and atv 
horrent to the feelings of the peo[)le of the free States, 
as. in our op inion, not only inevitably to result in a 
Jt Heart, Fiialer, Washington Citj. 



dissolution of the Union, but fully to justify it; and we 
not only assert that the people of the free States 
"ought not to submit to it," but we say. with confi- 
dence, they would not submit to it. We know their 
present temper and spirit on this snbject too well to 
believe for a moment that they wtjuld become purtictpt 
criminis in any such subtle contrivance for the irreme- 
diable perpetuation of an institution which the wisest 
and best men who formed our Federal Constitution, 
as well from the slave as the free States, regarded a» 
an evil and a curse, soon to become extinct under the 
operation of laws to be passed prohibiting the slave- 
trade, and the progressive influence of the principles 
of the Revolution." 

John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts; Seth it. 
Gates, of New York; WilUam Slade, of Vermont; Wil- 
liam B. Calhoun, of Massachusetts; Joshua R. Gid- 
dings, of Ohio; Sherlock J. Andrews, of Ohio; Natha- 
niel B. Bordon, of Massachusetts ; Thomas C. Chit- 
tenden, of New York; John Mattocks, of Vermont; 
Christopher Morgan, of New York; Joshua M. How- 
ard, of Michigan; Victory Birdseye, of New York; 
Thomas A. Toralinson, of New York; Staley N. 
Clark, of New York; Charles Hudson, of Massachu- 
setts; Archibald L. Linn, of New York; Thomas W. 
Williams, of Connecticut; Truman Smith, of Connec- 
ticut; David Bronson, of Maine; George N. Briggs, of 
Massachusetts; and Hiland Hall, of Vermont 

Washingtox, March 3, 1843. 

Of the Whig members of Congress who signed thia 
address, (for it was scorned and denounced by the De- 
mocrats,) each one was elected by the Whig party, eaek 
of them is still a Whig, an ardent friend ofHenry City, 
and each of them has been sustained since this denuncia- 
tion of the South by his Whig constituents of the North, 
thus eadorsing these libels upon us and our institutions. 
These Whig members of Congress denounced slavery 
"as an evil and a curse," as an institution "unjust," 
"injurious to the interests and abhorrent to the feelings 
of the people of ihe free States," and, fin&'.!y, tk 'y de- 
clared that the attempt to susuin it by the annexation 
of Texas, would "fully justify a dissolution of tk« 
Union." If these charges are true, they disgrace and de- 
grade the South. Yet they were made by 21 leadioe 
Whig friends of Mr. Clay in Congress, and endorsed 
subsequently by their Whig constituents. Nearly all of 
these twenty-one members were sustained for le-elee- 
tion by their Whig cmstituents; or those who did not 
return again to Congress, they elevated to higher 8|«- 
tions. Thus, Mattocks, in Sept. 1843, and Slade, ia 
Sept 1844, were elected bythe Whigs as Governors of 
Vermont, and Briggs, in Nov. 1843, as Governor of 
Massachusetts. Such are the allies with whom Ihs 
Whigs of the South are asked to co-operate in tha 
election of Henry Clay. Such is the party in the 
North whom the Whigs of the Sjuth are asked t» 
place in power, thus sustaining the eiiemies who de- 
nounce, instead of I heir friends, the Democracy ofthel 
North, who sustain and defend the Soutband their in-j 
stitutions. 

Mr. Giddingi, of Ohio, one of the twenty-one Whig I 
members of Congress who issued the above address, in 
his speech in Congress, on the 1st May. 1844, agaiosi 
the annex^lUoa of Texas, says; 



/ 



■pv 



"A long life of public service, in which he (Mr. 
Clay) has shown himself honest and independent, 
gires the country the best possible assurance that he 



Whig rAnxr, and that ]«xeRo EMAScirATinN ii 
among the great works to which that »a»tt is tk- 
voted, and you may rest assured that the echo frow 



will maintain those rights to which I have alluded, and the green mountains will be the most cheering tounc 



will ivipe out the foul disgrace already brought upon 
car national character, by attempting to make slavery 
and the slave-trade a subject of national support Mr. 
Birney, if elected, and were in possession of Mr. 
Clay's talents and experience, could bo iro moiie." 
W. H. Seward, the last Whig Governor of N. York and 
an ardent supporter of Mr. Clay, thus speaks and writes 
in the name, and with the sanction, of the entire Whig 
party of New York. The New York Tribune, a leading 
Whig and Clay organ, of August 5, 1844, con- 
tains the letter of Gov. Seward of July 8, 1844, to the 
Whig mass meeting of Waterville, published and en- 
dorsed by them as a part of their proceedings, in which 
he says: "Our adversaries (the Democrats) are broken 
up in their central councils, and in their caucus cohe- 
sion. They have committed themselves, beyond re- 
treat, to the extension and fortification of human sla- 
''ery" — that is, to the acr/uisition of Texas, and he 
concludes by saying : "Once compel our countrymen 
to admit that the Whig paiity are, (is Ihoy truly are, 
the PAHTY OP EMANCIPATION and of progress, and we 
shall no longer have to complain of any portion of our 
fellow-citizens, that they strike down the arm which 
upholds republican institutions, and controls them for 
the public welfare.' 

In his speech of'l3th July, 1844, to the great Whig 
Syracuse Convention of New York, and received by 
tliem with unbounded afiplause, Governor Seward 
says to that portion present who were Abolitionists: 
"I have always believed and trusted, that the IVhigs 
of America would come up to the ground you have so 
nobly assumed. Not that I supposed, or believed, 
they would all at once, or from the .same impulses, 
reach that ground. But that the progress of events 
would surely bring them there, .ind they would as- 
sume it cheerfully. That consummation has come. 
All that is dear to the Whigs of the United Stales, in 
regard to policy, to principle, and to administration, is 
now involved with yonr own favorite cause, in the pre- 
sent issue, upon the admission of Texas into the Union. 
You have now this great, generous, and triumphant 
party on the very ground to which you have invited 
them, and for not assuming which, prematurely, you 
have so often denounced them;" and he adds : "Tl: 
security, the duration, the extension of slavery, all de- 
pend on the annexation of Texas. How, then, can 
any frieiu/ of emancipaHon vole for (Polk) the Tex- 
as candidate, or withhold his vole from (Clay) the 
Whig candidate, without exhibiting the mere caprice 
of faction." t-'uch are the open appeals of the Whigs 
of the North, through their meetings, presses, and 
leaders, to the Abolitionists, to vote for Mr. Clay, and 
overthrow slavery. The Sentinel says: "What gives 
Gov. Seward some show of right to endorse tor the 
opinions of Henry Clay, is that, in all probability, in 
case of Mr. Clay's election to the Presidency, Mr. 
Seward has been designated to CM the responsible of- 
fice of Secretary of Slate." Gov. Seward's letter, giv- 
ing the pledge for Mr. Clay, daled Auburn, June 12, 
1844, and addressed to the central Whig committee 
of the State of Vermont, is as follows: "Renominate 
John Maltocks, (for Governor,) or if, for his conve- 
nience, or the public interest, -it, be convenient to 
change, then nominate some such (rue liberty-loving 
Whig, and renew your declaration that the extension 
of human elaveiy is at war with the jnHncipks of the 



thai ever reached fMr. Clay J the saoe oi Ata-i 
lAXD." Well, the Whigs of Vermont did nominate 
for Governor William Slade, a most bitter Abolition- 1 
ist, and did renew their Abolition resolutions. M; 1 
Slade was, when Mr. Clay was Secretary of State, one 
of his confidential clerks, and, in his letter of July 
1844, accepting the nomination of the Whigs for (n 
vernor of Vermont, Mr. Slade says: '•! rejoice to sm 
that I believe Henry Clay has, arid will do mart U'j 
ABOLISH sLAVERT IN THIS Union than any oiheA\ 
■man." In his letter to the Whig mass convention ol 
Sheldon, of 13lh July, 1844. published and endorsed by 
them, Mr. Slade says: "The Whig party occupy, at 
this moment, a position of unparalleled interest. Be- 
sides their advocacy of the measures to which they have 
long been commited, they constitute, to all present 
practical purposes, the true 'Liberty party' — because, 
with their great leader, they are coming to the rescue 
of the Union, by resisting the consummation of a 
scheme, whose avowed object is, to augment the 
power of slavery, and fasten its rule irrevocably on th<.( 
country. 

"But there is a new and fearfully important ques- 
tion which has been suddenly thrown before the coun- ' 
try, to be decided in the present contest. I mean the 
question of annexing a foreign nation to our Confede- 
racy — a question involving, as it seems to me, nothing • 
less than the very existence of this Union. The' 
consummation of this project, which awaits the tri- 
umph of our opponents in this year's contest, will be 
tantamount to an act declaring the Union dissolved;^ 
and Mr. Slade adds: "I need not say that the euccea 
of our opponents in this Presidential election would 
be the success of this measure. Their candidate has 
been selected for the express purpose of carrying it. 
He is committed to it irrevocably. And where iy 
Henry Clayl Opposed to if, and opposed for rea.wns 
of perpetual force." The hading Whig organ of New 
York, the Tribune, characterizes this letter as "a com- 
manding expression of lofty sentiments and important 
tiuths." The same paper of the 6th July, contains the 
letter of June, 1844, of John Reed, the Whig Lieu- 
tenant Governor of Massachusetts, in which, af- 
ter denouncing Polk and Dallas as "ultra im- 
mdiate re-annexation Texas men," denouncing 
the Texas letter of Mr. Walker, Senator from 
Mississippi, as a " bold and ingenious appeaj 
to ignorance and prejudice, and a "shinder upon the 
free negroes," and describing Mr. Walker as the 
"President maker, the master spirit who dictated ioi 
controlled the measures and result of the Baltimore 
ConventioB," Governor Reed says: "Massachusetts is 
anxious to prevent the annexation of Texas, because 
such annexation would be a palpable violation of the 
Constitution ; because it would increase, and enlarge, 
and perpetuate the slave territory and stave power. 

"They will endeavor, and I have no doubt will he 
successful, in giving their electoral vote for Messrs. 
Clay and Frelinghuy.sen, for President and Vice Presi- 
dent." "They would reject the proposition to annex 
Texas to the tjnited States, because it is unconstitutional 
and unjust, and above all things would avoid the secret, 
cunning, insidious, base machinations of the Texas 
policy ofthis day of dishonor and disgrace." 

"Will you, who denominate yourselvessf the Liberty 
party, examine and consider the points and euggee- 



lions I have Tentured to mike. I beg yon to come to 
tke rescse. Participate in tlie great reTolulion anil 
reform which I trust in God is about to take place. You 
cannot choose Mr. Bimey. We are, as far as I know, 
agreed in our political views, as to the policy of the 
Government generally, and most assuredly are agreed 
as to the awful coii-ixiuences which would inevitably 
result in the event of the annexation of Texas. If Mr. 
Polk is elected, Texas will be annexed. I repeat, unite 
with us and share the glory of defeating llie Texas 
plot, and saving the country. 

In reviewing these things, I have often expressed 
the opinion, that at least a portion of the Liberty party 
would unite with us in the choice of President and 
Tice President. / take satiifadion in rherishing the 
hope. Very respectfully, JOHN REED." 

The New York Tribune of Auf;ust contains I he 
letter of John Quincy Adams, dated July 29, 1 i U 
in which speaking of what he calls ''the slave 
mongering Texas treaty," and the determination of 
Ingland to abolish slavery in Texas and throughout 
the world, he say.^: " We are yet to learn with 
what ears the sound of the trumppt of slavery 
was listened to by the British Queen and her 
ministers. We are yet to learn whether the suc- 
cessor of Flizabpth on the throne of England, and her 
Burleighs and Walsinghams, upon hearing that their 
avowed purpose to promote universal emancipation 
and the extinction of slavery upon the eaith is to be 
met by the man robbersof our own country with ex- 
terminating war, will, like craven cowards, turn theii 
backs and flee, or eat their own words, or disclaim 
tke purpose which they have avowed." At the great 
"Whig mass meeting at Springlield, Massachusetts, 
on the lOth August, 1844, Mr. Choale, the Whig U. 
S. Senator said: "Does not every stockjobber, land- 
jobber, andJJeshJobber. who clamors for annexation, 
udderstanAperff ctly thathe aids his objects by choos- 
ing Mr. Polk? The election of Mr. Polk will or may 
annex Texas as a territory. The election of Mr 
Clay defeats or-iposlpones it indefinitely. Read his 
letter upon this subject, observe the broad and jufr- 
BKMipni grounds of exclusion which he there sketches: 
advert to the wellweiglud i\ec\&faiion, thai so long as 
any considerable opposition to the measure shall be 
manifested he will resist it, and you cannot tail to 
see, that unless you yourselves, unless Massachu- 
setts, and Vermont, and Ohio, should withdraw their 
opposition, for his term at least you are safe, and all 
are safe. That letter, fn my judgment, makes him a 
tittle to every anti-Texas vote in America." Such 
is the view taken by Mr. Choate, the Whig U S. 
Senator from Massachusetts, in favor of Mr. Clay, 
and against Texas, and against the people of Uie 
Sonlh, whom, in the language of the Abolition jour- 
nals, he complimeutB with the title Of "flesh joe- 

»ER." 

Mr. Webster, the gieat Whig leader in the North, 
addressed the tame meeting, and thus appealed di- 
rectly to the Abolitionists in favor of Mr. Clay : 
"If the third party, as itis called, {the Moiiiioniils! ) 
will but unite witJi the Whigs in deleating a measure 
which both alike condemn, then, indeed, the voice of 
Massachusetts will be heard throughout the Union " 
"If there be one person belonging to that third 
party here, of him I would ask, what he intends to 
do in this crisis? If there be none, let me request 
each one of you who may know such a man, to pu* 
the question to him when you return home. No one 
<:an deny, that to vote for Mr. Polk if to vote for 
the annexation of Texas, or if he should deny, it 
is not less true. I tell you, that if Polk is elected, 
annexation follows inevitably!" And Mr. Webster 
adds . "The gr«at foudameutal everlajstiog objecQoQ 



lo the annexation o{ Texas is, that it is a scheme for 
the extension of the slavery of the African race." 
But in a still later speech to the great Whig mass meet- 
ing at Boston Common, on the 19th September, 1844, 
Mr. Webster said: "There is no disguising it. Itis 
eilher Poik and Texaa, or neither Polk nor Texas. 
On the other siJe is Henry Clay. His opinions have 
been expressed on this subject of Texas." "WelL 
then, gcn'lemen, I for one, say that under the present 
circninstancps of the case, I give my vote heartily for 
Mr. Clay; and I say I give it, among other reasone, 
because he is pledged against Texas. With his 
opinions on mere incidental points, I do not now 
ir can to hold any controversy. I hold, unquestion- 
ably, that the annexation of Texas does tend, and 
will tend to the existence and perpetuation of Af- 
lican slavery, and the tyranny of race over race op 
this continent, and therefore I will not go for it." 
"Henry Clay ban said thathe is against annexation 
unles.i it is called for by the common consent of tke 
country, dind that he is against Texas being made a 
new province against the wishes of any considerMe 
number of the.^e States. Till then he holds himself 
bound to oppose annexation. Here is his pledge, 
and upon it I lake my rtand. He is a man nt .^_ 
honor and truth, and will redeem his pledge. Yas, 
gentlemen, we take him at his word, and he dare not 
lorfcit that word." 

This speech of Mr- Webster is since Mr. Clay's 
last Texas letter, and in no one of which does be 
withdraw his pledge against the anexation of Ttxas, 
"ifopposed by any considerable number of States;" 
and, as the Whig States of the North will for- 
ever oppose it, Mr. Webster says "here is his 
pledge, and upon it I take my stand." Mr. Web- 
ster Tinight have added, as other Whig orators of the 
North have done, that unless Mexico consents, 
Mr. Clay is also pledged to oppose the annexation of 
Texas. Now, Mexico, with her debt of eighty-four 
millions of dollars, due in England, is as completely 
under British influ.'nce as if she were a Biitish 
province; and lo ask the consent of Mexico, is(o 
ask the consent of England, which we all know will 
never be granted. Among the items of news brought 
by a late steam packet from England, and repub-- 
li'shed in the National Intelligencer is the following 
oflicial announcement: "The Queen (Victoria) has 
cimferied the Grand Cross of Charles III, on Santa 
Anna, President of the Republic of Mexico." Sueh 
are the honors conferred by England on Santa Anna. 
for threatening war upon this country, if we persisted 
the annexation of Texas. And we are to ask tl»e 
consent of Santa Anna, now a British nobleman 
Well, then, might Mr. Webster say, that the pledge 
of Henry Clay against the annexation of Tex»« 
would never be forfeited, for a considerable number of 
the Slatei would forever oppose the annexation; and 
Mexico, governed by the counsels of England, would 
never consent to it; and were not this pledge of Mr. 
Clay certain and reliable, he would never receive •!>* 
support of the Whigs of the North. Among the res- 
sons urged by Mr. Clay against the annexation of 
Texas, are the legislntive resolutions of Massachusetts 
and Vermont. Now on what grounds do these States 
oppose the annexation ? Upon Abolition and anti- 
slavery grounds. Thus the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts opposed the annexation of Texas, upon the 
ground, as set forth in their first set of resolutions, that 
it would "strengthen and extend the evils of a system 
(slavery) which is unjust in itself, iu striking contrast 
with the theory of our in«tit<itians, and conderaaed by 
the moral sentiment of mankind." Vermont, in bee 
legislative reeolutions "^leomly, protests agaioet the 



annexation of Texas in any form," and against the ad- 
mission into this Union of any State whose Constitu- 
tion tolerates domestic slaTery, and "instracts her Se- 
notors "to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the 
District of Columbia and in the Territories of the 
United States." 

Tlie Legislatures of the Whig States of Massachu- 
setts and Vermont pass resolutions againsi the annexa- 
tion of Texas, upon the very strongest Anti-slavery and 
Abolition grounds, and Mr. Clay approves, endorses, 
adopts, and sustains them, by referring to these resolu- 
tions as a sufficient reason of itself against the annexa- 
tion of Texas. The doctrine of the Whig Legislatures of 
the North is, that slavery is a crime and a disgrace, and 
that the slavehoUling States are not fit associates for 
the free States of the North; and Mr. Clay adopts une- 
quivocally these resolutions, by giving them as an in- 
superable objection to the annexation. AuJ now how 
stands the case ? By the last census, the North has 
135 Representatives in Congress, and the South but 
88, being » majority of 47 in favor of the North, 
which is still increasing at every census. The Senate 
is slill equally divided, but Wisconsin and Iowa are 
both to be adm tted as free States, and if Florida were 
admitted at the same time, it would make a majority 
against us in the Senate. Tlie only hope of the 
South, then, is in the annexation of Texas, which 
would give the South a majority in the Senate, nhils' 
tLc North maintained its preponderance in the 
House, and thus give effectual security to the South, 
and r;reatly tend to preserve and perpetuate the Union, 
which, with the growingspirit of Abolition in the (North) 
would be greatly endangered by giving to the North the 
unrestrained majority in both Houses of Congress. Even 
if Mr. Clay were not opposed to annexation, the whole 
Whig party of the North are, and their successwould be 
the defeat of annexation, whatever the views of Mr. 
Clay might be. But is his course free from censure on 
this aubject! Without referring again to his adoption of 
the Vermont and Massachusetts anti-Texas and anti- 
rfavery resolutions as the ground of his action in oppos- 
ing annexation, let us examine fuither bis course on 
this subject. In the life of Mr. Clay, by his confi- 
dential friend and chosen biographer, Mr. Prentice, of 
Louisville, he says: "He (Mr. Clay,) has been the 
slant's fritnd through life. In all stations has he 
pleaded the cau^e of African freedom, without fear 
from high or low. To him, more than to any other in 
dfviduat. is owing that great revolution which has ta- 
ken place on this subject. A revolution whose wheels 
must continue to move onward until they reach the 
goal of universal freedom." He also endeavored to dis- 
sever Kentucky from the South, by proposing to insert 
in her Constitution a clause for "the prospective eradi- 
cation of slavery from the State, by means of a gradual 
emancipation of those held in bandage." See his life, 
bf bis friend Epes Sargent, pp. 5, 46. Where the South 
would have been with Kentucky against them on the 
question of abolition, let the present posture of affairs 
and the events of the List few years answer. Nor has Mr. 
GUy changed his opinion on this subject, for ke would 
not only take Kentucky, but Virginia also, from the 
South, and leave them a feeble and a defenceless mi- 
nority. In his speech of the 20th January, 1827, in 
the flail of the House of Representatives, Mr. Clay 
said : "If I could be instrumental in eradicating (sla- 
very) this DEEPEST STAiDT upon the character of our 
country, and removing all cause of reproach on ac- 
cotiot of it by foreign nations; if I could only be io- 
strumeatal in ridding of this tovL blot that revered 



Stale (\'irgini«) that gave me birth, or that not lew 
beloved State which kindly adopted me as her son, ) 
I would not exchange the proud satisfaction which I 
should enjoy for the honor of all the triumphs ever de- 
creed to the most successful conqueror." Page 326. 

In his speech in the Senate on the 9th March, 1836, 
recorded in Gales and Seaton's Register of Debates, 
vol. 12, part 1st, page 786, Mr. Clay said: "He con- 
tended that as neither Virginia nor Maryland, nor 
both combined, could abolish slavery in the District 
of Columbia, the power, without limitution or restric- 
tion, existed onlv in Congress;" and in the debate in the 
Senate, Jan. 11, 1838, "Mr. Clay thought the Sena- 
tor from South Carolina would not declare that it 
would be unconstitutional far Congress to abolish sla- 
very in the District or Territories " But the Senator 
from South Carolina did deny the power, as does Mr. 
Polk and every Southern Senator, it is said, however, 
Mr. Clay deems it inexpedient to exercise the power; but, 
as he opposes the exercise of the veto power on ques- 
tions of expediency, what safeguard would the South 
have in his views on this subject, when he distinctly 
informs the Abolitionists that Congress does possess 
the constitutional power to abolish slavery in the District 
of Columbia, and in the Territories of the United States. 
On the 9lh March, 183C, Mr. Clay voted in the Se- 
nate of the United States in favor of the reception of 
Abolitions petitions. Senate journal, page 210. On 
the 2d of June, 183G, he voted against the engrossment 
of the bill preventing the transmission of incendiary 
Abolition documents through the mail; and on the 8th 
June, 1836, he v»ted against the passage of that 
bill, so important to the safety of the South. See 
Senate journal of that year, pages 400 and 416. In 
his speech at Lexington, Kentuc';y, in September, 
1836, printed under bis own eye, in. one of 
his friendly presses, the Lexington Intelligencer, 
and also printed in Niles' Register of the lith 
September, 1836, Mr. Clay says; "I consider slavery 
as a curse, a curse to the master, a wrong, a grievous 
wrong to the slave. In the abstract it \i all wrong, 
and no possible contingency can make it right." Hero 
Mr. Clay dehberately denounces slavery as "a eurie," 
'•awrong,agrievowi v>rons;lo the tlave," and to captha 
climax he adds, "no posiible contingency can make it 
right." What stronger encouragement can Abolition 
ask than this! Men of the South, do you consider 
that you, as charged by Mr. Clay, are offering "« 
grievous wrong to the slave V If so, write the 
irrevocable sentence of yoar own acknowledged 
guilt and self-dagradntion, by electing to the hi^eat 
office in your gift, the very maa who has tlwis con- 
demned, rebuked, and denoanced you. .\nd when 
you have done the deed, and the rejoicing shouts of 
Vermont, and Massachusetts, and the other Whig 
States of the North, triumphant, by your aid, over yanr 
friends the prostrate Democracy of the North, shall 
proclaim to you, in the language of your Presideat, 
ABOLISH SLAvsKT, which you yourselves will thiM 
have declared "a gbikvoos waoNo to thk slays," 
" AN'o sn possible 6«vtihgknct can jkakb it 
RIGHT," what will be your answer, and how will yott 
escape the sentence of your own self-condemnation 1 
Reflect, then, Whigs of the South, our brethren and fel- 
low-ciliiens, pause and consider well all the dreadfal 
consequences, before you sink us all together into one 
common abyss of ruin and (!»><»»" J—- - - 

LiBRftRV OF CONGRESS Chairman. 



> 




an 783 253 




eta^, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 783 263 6 



HOLLINGER 
pH 8J 

MILL RUN F3-1543 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 783 263 6 



HOLUNGER 

pH8J 

MILL RUN F3-1543 



